Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

All Hallows by Christopher Golden

6 reviews

finnsnowbevi's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Abandonment, Grief, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Alcoholism, Child death, Gore, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, and Mental illness

Moderate: Pedophilia, Outing, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Racism, and Vomit

Minor: Medical content and Sexual content

hollyberry_books's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Body horror, Self harm, Violence, Child death, Outing, Murder, Blood, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Vomit, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, and Alcoholism

mishmashreads's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Not a terrible book. But definitely not a good book either. 

The writing was good… ? I loved the feel of the neighborhood. Gave me Donnie Darko vibes. I love getting to know the characters and seeing their lives intersect. But also, the writing was bad. The phrase “hitched his/her breath” was used so many times it was distracting. One chapter literally spent pages building a climatic situation and then ended with the full sentence “And he died.” Also the whole Ruth and Zack storyline is super weird and I did not like it. Are we supposed to be learning about monsters among us? Cuz very bad job of pulling that metaphor off, if so.

There are a lot of characters with each chapter focused on one of them. Don’t put it down for too long or you will forget who is who. 

The book does not actually get anywhere close to action until 150+ pages in. Thank goodness the chapters were short. Christopher Golden should skip horror and just write fiction novels. I liked his characters. I liked his writing when it wasn’t in the “spooky” part of the book. The horror part of the book (aka the second half of the book) is not good.

3 stars, but if I was rating based on horror alone, it would have been 2. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Infidelity, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Vomit, Pedophilia, Violence, Murder, Homophobia, Death of parent, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Racial slurs, Misogyny, Outing, Racism, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Self harm and Suicidal thoughts

louiepotterbook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Genocide, Bullying, Child abuse, Misogyny, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Rape, Gore, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Death, Death of parent, Outing, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

yomireads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Often, horror as a genre takes the fear of innocence lost and social taboos and uses sexual infidelity/deviance as tool to do so. All Hallows certainly has plenty of infidelity and the like, but I don't feel it furthers the horror. If anything it muddies the waters of the story with the characters personal drama. It felt out of place with the Cunning Man and these mysterious children.

The couple on the block proported to be an open couple that swings being used as a villainous presence outside of anything supernatural felt very close-minded especially.

Done well is the alienation children feel as their parents' troubles bleed into the rest of the family, and the fear of leaving behind the familiar. The lesbian character does feel a touch on the nose, but the fear of being outed and the tenuous hold on who to trust is good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Alcohol, Infidelity, Outing, Toxic relationship, Biphobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Kidnapping, Confinement, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Physical abuse

caidyn's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Solid horror. I'm always a bit iffy on books set on/around Halloween, but this hit the mark. Creepy kids? Lots of small town drama fueling things? The one thing I didn't love was all the perspectives. A few too many.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Child death, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcoholism and Homophobia

Minor: Self harm and Pedophilia